Luckily for my passengers, aircraft and me, the only times I’ve experienced a runway excursion have been during training. On each occasion, the results were predictable, even in the most sophisticated aircraft simulator. A loss of directional control sends the aircraft sliding across shamrock-green video scenery and careening harmlessly through runway lights and signs, trees and anything else in the way. The video display above the instrument panel turns red as the instructor reminds me that I just performed a maneuver that will surely land me in the hospital if it happens in the real world. Down deep, no matter how much I try to concentrate, though, I know it’s all pretend.
Losing directional control on the runway during takeoff or landing in an airplane, however, is no laughing matter. Boeing lists loss of control on the ground as the central cause of more than three dozen aircraft accidents in the last decade. A recent FlightSafety International manual also reported 43 percent of all runway excursion accidents occurred during VMC, when crews should have had sufficient visibility to see the problem coming.
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